Altruism is killing us. Take a second to let that sink in. Truly think about it. Resist your conditioning to refute this claim and try to apply it to your life. Still having trouble? Let me try to explain.
In order to understand the truly destructive force of altruism on medicine, one must first define altruism. This can be difficult to do in the United States as any “good” or “charitable” act will instantly be defined and praised as altruism, but this is not true. Altruism is the complete devotion to the welfare of others at the expense and disregard of oneself. Try not to gloss over this last part, it’s important.
Altruism is not providing gifts to loved ones because you care about them. It is not volunteering at a soup kitchen during your free time as a resume builder. It is not providing care to patients during working business hours or spending an extra ten minutes on the phone getting their medications approved. It is not performing a task in which you receive some benefit whether it be tangible or intangible. Altruism is the sacrifice of the self in devotion to the other. It is eliminating your vacation to see more patients. It is spending time away from family to answer pages and phone calls when you would otherwise be allowed to rest and relax. It is the uplifting of those that do not care about you to the detriment of those that still do. It is the systematic voiding of the individual that somehow ingrained itself so deeply in the field of medicine that many accept it as a core element to the practice of medicine. This is lethal.
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